Shuttle’s thermal blanket has tear

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – With a 4-inch gap in the space shuttle Atlantis’ heat-protecting blanket not appearing to be an urgent problem on Saturday, the crew readied themselves for what NASA called a delicate ballet with the International Space Station.

Then the shuttle will enter a weeklong embrace today with the orbital outpost.

Atlantis’ seven astronauts spent much of Saturday on a mandatory inspection of the shuttle’s delicate heat tiles, outer edges and blankets for problems similar to the kind that caused the fatal Columbia accident in 2003. As of Saturday afternoon, no glaring problems were reported.

But late Friday and early Saturday, the crew spent extra time using a robot arm to look at a gap in a thermal blanket on the left side of the shuttle. The gap, about 4 inches by 6 inches, appears to have been caused by air lifting the corner of the blanket, John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said at a news conference.

“It’s not a great deal of concern right now, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” Shannon said. “Other than that, the vehicle is very clean.”

NASA engineers want to study more photos of the torn blanket, covering maneuvering engines at the tail of the shuttle, particularly images that were taken by cameras attached to the solid rocket boosters that separated from Atlantis more than two minutes into flight and then dropped into the Atlantic Ocean. The boosters are recovered by ships after each launch.

Using the images, engineers can build models and perform aerodynamic and thermodynamic tests to determine whether the lifted blanket would cause problems during Atlantis’ re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere at the end of the mission.

As part of the normal day-after-launch tile inspections, astronaut Patrick Forrester used the shuttle’s robot arm and a boom extension to examine its wings and outer edges.

Atlantis’ seven-man crew was closing the gap between it and the space station by about 800 miles every 90-minute orbit. Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the space station today at 3:38 p.m. EDT.

Once the shuttle and station connect, they will stay locked until June 17.